Non-traditional spacecraft, such as small satellites and nanosatellites, are increasing in their rate of use for space based research. These small satellites and nanosatellites, such as CubeSats, are often constrained in pre-deployment size and weight, requiring the entire spacecraft to fit into a standardized deployment mechanism. For example, a 2U CubeS at may be required to fit into a 20 cm×10 cm×10 cm space prior to deployment. Once deployed, small satellites and nanosatellites often increase in size from their pre-deployment state by extending deployables, such as solar panels, antennas, etc.
The requirement to fit into such small spaces prior to deployment has limited the ability to constrain these deployables to the small satellites and nanosatellites, because traditional restraint mechanisms utilize a considerable amount of precious internal space of the small satellites and nanosatellites. To avoid dedicating internal space of the small satellites and nanosatellites, past designs have secured the deployables to the exterior of the small satellites and nanosatellites by looping the deployables and the small satellites and nanosatellites in monofilament line (i.e., fishing line). A burning wire is then activated after the small satellites and nanosatellites are deployed to melt the monofilament line and release the deployables. While tying the deployables down with monofilament line does not sacrifice internal space of the small satellites and nanosatellites to securing deployables prior to launch, the process of burning through the monofilament line is unpredictable and unreliable and the monofilament line is prone to stretching. Additionally, the small satellites and nanosatellites secured with monofilament line wrapped around them often fail to provide a rigid preload interface and the deployables can rattle leading to potential damage and other vibration issues. Therefore, a predictable and reliable release mechanism that does not utilize internal space of the small satellites and nanosatellites is needed.